How Nutrition Affects Your Physical, Mental, And Spiritual Energy

Good Nutrition Is Key To Boosting Your Energy

It’s common knowledge that eating the right foods is crucial to your long term health. We often see on television the importance of balancing your diet and getting the right nutrients. Why do we need what the experts are recommending though? Beyond keeping your body’s systems up and running well, getting a good balance of nutrients is also a must when it comes to providing the energy you need throughout the day. 

When we are discussing energy, we are referring to more than merely having enough to get us through the day. All of us deserve to have energy that will not only sustain us, but also allow us to flourish in our lives in multiple areas. Below, we’ll talk about the three major areas that proper nutrition can benefit our energy levels as well as our overall wellness.

Physical Energy And Nutrition

A boost in your physical energy is perhaps the first area you begin to notice when you’ve eaten well. Oppositely, it’s also one of the first areas you’ll begin to notice when you’ve maintained poor nutrition. One of the first ways you can start improving your nutritional intake is by eating at regular intervals. If you’re snacking all day, or only eating once or twice, you are more likely to overeat than if you keep a regular schedule. Not only does overeating cause unnecessary weight gain, but being constantly full can also zap our energy levels and keep us less active.

Eating from different groups of food will help maintain your physical energy balance. Try to focus on lean proteins and plenty of fruit and vegetables. When you do choose grains, make sure they are whole grains as often as possible.

We all love the occasional sugary snack because it can provide us some temporary enjoyment and a burst of energy. However, energy drinks, cookies, and candy can all cause us to crash after that sugar wears out an hour or so later. Proteins, smoothies, and natural fruits and veggies will provide you with a much better form of sustained energy.

Mental Energy And Nutrition

Nutrition and how you feel mentally are not completely unrelated. In fact, what you eat greatly affects your mental energy and mood. The greatest links to eating a poor diet are anxiety and depression. A newly emerging field of study called nutritional psychiatry is gaining popularity as more people are looking to food as a form of medicine. 

In some studies, Western diets consisting of lots of processed meats and red meats were more likely to go hand-in-hand with a higher rate of depression. Furthermore, dairy products and high-fat foods also contributed to this depression trend. In countries that ate more fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and fish, there was a lower rate of depression. It has been shown that both anxiety and depression can drain your mental energy and make day-to-day tasks incredibly difficult. Eating right can give us the mental energy to enjoy our lives in the short-term and long-term. 

Spiritual Energy And Nutrition

Surprisingly, your eating habits may actually have an effect on your spiritual energy. This is regardless of what system you choose to believe. By treating your body as a temple and only honoring it with healthy, whole foods, you’ll become more aware of how your eating habits can affect your outlook on your life. 

By practicing balance in what and how much you eat, you can learn to practice balance with the positive and negative forces you experience from day to day. Eating to nourish your body can also serve as nourishment to your soul.